My Favourite Cookbooks

My top two favourite things in the entire world are firstly eating and secondly cooking. I love trying out new recipes, tastes, flavours and cooking up new recipes - how successful these are is up for debate. But I do love to try!

Having a few health problems means I have to watch what I eat. I can't eat gluten, dairy in large quantities and at the moment am following a low FODMAP diet on the advice of my doctor. When you have digestive problems, you can develop a bit of a love hate relationship with food.

Some days I love to eat and others I can't even think about food. It's an ongoing struggle but truly, there is no better feeling than finding a yummy recipe, cooking it up and realising I can actually eat it without making me ill. Joy!

If anyone out there is struggling with what to eat, what to cook and what new foods to try, I would definitely recommend these four amazing cookbooks that are my everyday bibles.

So let's get down to it shall we!

1) Deliciously Ella - Every Day

The second in Ella's current trio of big book recipes, this cookbook is packed full of amazing, natural and deliciously easy recipes. Compared to her other two books, this has to be my favourite. Simple food using similar ingredients in a variety of different ways. I found that in the beginning I needed to buy certain ingredients; miso paste, black beans, buckwheat flour, maple syrup, which can be a little costly however once you have these you can make virtually anything in the book with the addition of a few simple store staples.

Deliciously Ella is currently £9.50 on Amazon. Buy here

2) Hannah Miles - Gluten Free Christmas 

Okay no not an every week staple but definitely one to take a look at. We all know Christmas is full of pastries, gravy, biscuits and sweets all of which contain gluten, dairy, sugars and it's these bad boys that make me feel not so good. Hannah Miles' Gluten Free Christmas is full of tasty treats from canapes to Christmas day staples for a whole range of dietary preferences. If you, like me, suffered the dreaded FOMO last year, you need to pick up this ahead of December. 

Gluten Free Christmas is currently £2 from The Works. Buy here.

3) Celia Brooks - Low-Carb & Gluten-Free Vegetarian

Thanks to my mum for this one. A couple of years ago ahead of the summer holidays me and my sister decided to go on a low carb adventure for a week and as a gluten free vegetarian you can imagine the difficulty. Thankfully this book was there to save me. The recipes in this can be a little more complex and do contain some ingredients you won't necessarily have in the cupboard but if you're after some low carb veggie options this is a must have. My particular favourite is the Rocket and Ricotta Cheesecake - I like to add some spinach to mine. Great in salads or as a side on a buffet lunch. Must make this again soon! 

Low Carb & Gluten Free Vegetarian is £14.99 on Amazon. Kindle and Ebook versions available from £6. Buy here.

4) Emma Hatcher - The Fodmap Friendly Kitchen

My absolute bible at the moment. Emma's book has been a god send for the FODMAP diet. With loads of meal ideas from starters, mains and my particular favourites the sweet treats - this is an absolute must have for anyone starting on the FODMAP plan. Her book includes a range of veggie and meat friendly recipes from quick cooks to more lengthy bakes. Current favourites include the Peanut and Caramel Bars and the Hippie Bars - a wonderful option for not feeling limited on the plan and indulging your sweet tooth once in a (far too often) while. Check out her blog too for some great alternatives. 

The FODMAP Friendly Kitchen is £13.60 on Amazon. Buy here. 

If you have any other amazing cook books that you think I would love, let me know in the comments! 

An Active Participant

"I had actively participated in every moment of the creation of this life." - Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

That's not something we always think about is it? We at most never consider ourselves as active participants in our own lives. Yes we make decisions about things, yes we make choices that define both us and the direction of our lives but we never consider ourselves to be active participants in the definition of those moments. They are merely what the bigger picture calls 'life'.

Half of the time we mere mortals spend our days working for clients, staring out of the train window on the commute home and mindlessly stirring our dinner before shovelling it in our mouths. Granted we have great moments in between, a co-worker that makes you belly laugh, helping an elderly lady onto the platform and accidentally dropping the entire bottle of chilli flakes into your dinner, but are we actually active within those?

There is, as far as science can suggest, no set path. No defining moment exists to suggest that our lives, as soon as we are pushed from the womb, are already predefined and set out. So how can we not be active? If the path is not set, surely we are active beings in defining that path? 

But I think we get lost. Time slips from one day to the next, one weekend to another and before we have even realised it's five years later, you've become a shadow of your former self and it's at that moment, according to Gilbert, that we stop and think wow - I created this. 

We each, whether we have recognised or not, have actively participated in every single second of every moment of our lives conscious or not. We have created an existence of being that, whether or not we are happy about it, we have actively chosen to exist within. 

So I guess the real question is, at what point do we become inactive if the conscious active state is not recognised? Perhaps this can be found at birth and during our toddler years. We at that point have no capabilities to make decisions for ourselves and so decisions are made for us and perhaps the organic route of inactivity can be found here. The moment when before we even understand decision making, we bypass this learning and are given a life that our ancestors, and theirs before them, believe to be best for us.

But then if this decision making process is never fully allowed to flourish in our tiny minds, how can we ever possibly be fully active in our own lives? How can we recognise every moment as a vital tipping point between one path and another, or a million other paths for that fact?

Maybe the real answer is we cant and we don't. Maybe the reason we are so inactive for some many points of our lives is that we are saving ourselves for the big active moments. The decisions we must face to redefine the existence of ourselves - much like the decision for divorce in Gilbert's novel. The kick up the bum if you will. 

When I sat in a cafe in Edinburgh with a job offer for a role far from my home town and in a city I barely knew anything of, I had to make that decision - to be an active participant in the creation of my own life. Had I not, I would have never met my partner, never moved into our little house in a cul de sac and have been writing this post on the sofa we bought together. 

The state of being both active and inactive is a state of total mutual appreciation. We allow ourselves those smaller inactive moments to build ourselves up for the bigger ones that lay down the stones, brick by brick, to a new path and a new kind of existence. 

Current Makeup Faves

We all go through phases with our make up. One week we're loving something and the next week we can't get it further away from our faces than physically possible. But then there is always something so magical about rediscovering something you were once absolutely obsessed with and for me there is always a reason. I can't be the only one to feel this... can I?

When I was 15 I favoured the heavy eyeliner, black eye shadow and pale lips situation. Why anyone, including myself thought that was a good idea I will never know. Just pile it on. Keep piling. The more the better - that was the motto.

But now I am all about that simple look. Give me glowing skin with a light yet flawless base any day. Here are a few of my favourites to help me achieve that look.

1) Real Techniques Contour Brush

This small but mighty brush is truly the only thing you need to achieve this look. If you only manage to remember one brush in your make up bag, this has to be the one. It can be used for cream, liquid or powder products and is just the right size for buffing in your foundation and applying your highlighter.

2) Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge

Okay you might have realised by now that I am a Real Techniques fan. Hands up - I'm obsessed. The miracle complexion sponge really is what it says on the tin - a miracle. I prefer to use mine wet as I prefer the dewiness that it adds to my foundation and helps keep my dry skin from absorbing too much foundation.

3) No7 Protect and Perfect Foundation - Calico

I discovered this foundation many years ago after an emotional moment with my mum where I cried about how orange I always looked. Back in those days, no foundation was made for those with 'porcelain' skin like mine and then when No7 announced their their Match Made service, we headed to Boots with quick haste. A simple yet seriously effective way of finding out what colours suit you - I couldn't recommend enough.

This foundation is light yet with a great coverage. It isn't drying or flaky and it doesn't sit on the skin. It becomes part of your skin and allows your features to shine on through while covering those that you don't want to show off.

4) Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer - 1 Fair

We all know this concealer is one of the most hyped and raved about products on the budget beauty market and for good reason. It covers spots, hides dark circles and can be used stand alone instead of foundation. The colour range is not great for all skin types but if you are on the fairer side I would highly recommend.

5) Benefit Watts Up Highlighter

For me the key to gorgeous and glowing skin is subtly. If you're wearing a sparkling highlighter, it's pretty damn obvious that's not really your face. This highlighter works with your skin and gives you a more luminescent finish. It's also a cream product so, rather than a powder, again enhances the dewy glowing finish that you're trying to achieve.

6) Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit

Sadly, this palette is no longer available however there are similar smaller palettes available instead.  I sent this as a joke to my boyfriend in the first few months that we were together and being the lucky girl I am, he bookmarked it and actually bought it for me last Christmas. Knowing how expensive this is, it's not something I would recommend you go out straight away and buy just because I say so. What I will say is that this palette is glowing, glittery and has a great finish that lasts the day. Pricey but, if you can afford it, one I would buy again.

7) Carmex Lip Balm

Hear me out here. Don't get me wrong, I love a lipstick as much as the next person but I am so fed up of having dry and chapped lips. This is the only lip balm I have found that looks glossy and actually protects your lips. Rather than trying to enhance what you don't have, work with what you've got! Your lips look gorgeous naturally - this just gives you a little helping hand along the way.



And there we have it. Everything I am currently loving for that super easy yet gorgeously glowing make up look. If you have any favourites that you couldn't live without, let me know in the comments.

A bit shit

It's okay to be a little bit shit. Let's just say that outright here on the first line. It is perfectly okay and sometimes amazing to be a little bit shit.

Let me ask myself a few questions here. Why does it matter if the next photo in my stream is a certain colour? Why does it matter if I want to read the latest Katie Price novel over Dickens? Why and who does this really matter to?

When you actually think about how Instagram works, we focus on uploading the perfect image. Where the delicately placed flowers are 2cm away from the bright and bold book cover and the shining Parker pen sits gently placed beside it. But it doesn't end there. Then we edit. We brighten, contrast, structure, colour and redefine the original moment to fit a certain theme or idea that we've set for yourself. And even then, we still aren't done. We hashtag, add tags and tag our location, adding these pieces of information to help people find this fictitious moment that quite frankly is a blurred perception of a fake reality.

I'll bet you've never even opened the bloody book!

It's okay to be a bit shit. It's okay to buy a book, open it and enjoy it. Or not enjoy it and put it on a bookshelf to gather dust. It's okay to buy a trashy novel and bloody love it. We don't all read Keats or Jane Austen unless suffering through it in our English lessons at school. And we don't have to perfectly colour our lives in order to gain a few likes on our social media channels.

But it's not just that. It's also okay to enjoy a night in at home in your food stained PJ's with a big old glass of wine that you've topped up way past the recommend mark. You don't have to have to fall into the trap of only having a 'perfect night in' if you complete a 'perfect' set of ideals. Oh you must have the new mud clay face mask in a skimpy satin number from some expensive shop you can't pronounce. No! Let me enjoy my wine and dirty clothes in peace. Let's redefine what 'perfect' is and make it simply 'perfect' for us. Not anyone else. Only you.

We have reached a point in our generation where, for the vast majority, there is a quiet suffering under the weight of our own perfectionism. We all want that extra special moment. We all want to showcase a glittering, shining example of our very "not perfect but GOD I'm trying to be" lives.

In doing so we lose ourselves. We lose the sense of self appreciation, one that doesn't come from hitting double figures on Instagram, and our own value in things that haven't come from the online world.

Read the trashy novel. Watch the Kardashians. Mix up your food in your boring brown bowl and fucking eat it. Love it! It's okay to be a bit shit and enjoy shit things so go on, do it.

This post was inspired by Black Mirror: Nosedive which I recently watched on Netflix. This post is not sponsored, endorsed or affiliated. All views are my own.

22 Dreams

When I wrote that title I had a brief moment of thought that said, wait am I really 22? When I was younger I some pretty big dreams. Singer, writer, elephant trainer, you name it, I wanted it. And I, in my naivety, was so convinced that I would achieve this. At the grand old age of 'adulthood' I would have achieved my dreams and be this big success with the perfect life where nothing could do wrong. Little did I realise, life isn't quite like that.

Especially in this world we are under such a pressure to succeed. In a climate where the likelihood of me being able to buy a house is slim, the likelihood that I will never be able to pay off my student loans and the chance that I will be dried up before I've even had a chance to have babies, all because we spend all our lives working and dreaming for something we cannot possibly hope to achieve. 

That's not to say there's anything wrong with having dreams and by god you have to dream or what's the point at all. Now let's be clear here, I'm not talking about those 'dream big and you will achieve big' motivational quotes that adorn the slate signs and quirky a4 posters of your local hipster cafe. The 'will' in a sparkling gold that almost hints that having those dreams isn't a dream at all but a promise that will inevitably come. Let's please stop with those please? 

I'm talking about the problem of dreaming big and actually achieving big. At school I dreamed of being a successful singer with a hit record by the time I was 18. At university I dreamed of being a successful blogger with a cute fashion line featured in the glossy pages of Vogue. Now I dream of being an author, a writer, with my books published on the shelves of some small bookshelf in the Cotswolds. I have dreams. But it's about achieving these in where the problem lies. 

We place these ideals on a pedestal and, for the most degree, will not achieve these until our later life; it's only the 'lucky' ones that get this in their young age. The bloggers who we admire with their fabulous lives and even better holidays. We don't see the, possibly literal, blood sweat and tears it took to get there and there in is the problem. The glossy and fabulous life is a front cover for the hard and gritty, nail biting work that comes behind it.

Success is not a thing that is achieved in an instant and it's only now that I begin to realise this. Tackling a full time job, house move, relationship and social life as well as finding the time to write is basically impossible because after all I'm not Wonder Woman and nor do I have a time turner like Hermione Granger. 

When I had dreams as a young girl, I didn't see the work. I saw only the glossy front cover. The lives that the singers had with their clothes, holidays, fame and fortune. I didn't see the constant meetings, the press events and the late nights up writing music that may not even reach #99 in the charts.

And now when I write this in the spare 3 hours that I have on my evening train to London I think, when will I next have the time to write? When do I write my blog? When do I read that book that I've had on my bedside table since February? The balance of life gets in the way of achieving those dreams that we so desperately desire. Yet there has to be a point when that becomes okay.

I have to earn money to pay my bills. I have to pack up my home ready to move. I have to keep the balance between work and private where the personal space is my sanctity. I have to prioritise living a life over casting all that aside just to write a couple of words that one day I'll put on a memory stick only for it to get lost on the bus. 

Life is okay. Dreams are okay. And we have to reach a space where having goals is okay, having dreams is okay but there's also life and living and existing with happiness that must take priority. Because after all, if you cant LIVE big, what's the point of dreaming at all? 

MY TOP 5 CHRISTMAS SONGS

If there's something I love about Christmas it's Christmas music. Driving home and putting on a good old bit of Chris Rea - is there anything better in life?

It's not that Christmas music is the most incredible movie you've ever heard in your life or even that it's going to be Grammy award winning. But being able to put jingle bells behind every backing track just makes me feel so happy that it even exists.

So I thought I'd put together my top 5 Christmas songs of all time so everyone can enjoy just a little bit of festive spirit and good ol' jingle bells...

disclaimer: this post is not sponsored, endorsed or affiliated.

MAKING A GINGERBREAD HOUSE

As a Christmas lover, it may shock you to hear that I've never made a Gingerbread House. I know right? What the hell are you playing at I hear you cry! So on the weekend I made it my mission to find a gingerbread house...

Now I'll admit, I know it's slightly cheating to use a premade kit but I do have a number of excuses. Firstly, I can't eat wheat so to actually made gingerbread that I can't eat anyway seemed a bit pointless to me. Secondly, I was starting to come down with a cold and didn't feel like spending the whole day slaving over, again, something I can't eat. And finally, I'm lazy AF. 

So let us begin. 

I picked up this Make Your Own Gingerbread House from Tesco for just £4. What a freaking bargain. It comes with all the essentials you'll need including base, gingerbread, icing and sweeties decorations. May I add at this point - I bought another packet of smarties to add to the house but they gave enough sweets to decorte it with that I didn't need them! 

Somehow they managed to find their way into my tummy... whoops!

I started by using the icing to stick the front of the house to the base and put two strips of icing up each side to make the walls stick to each other. As per the instructions, this is the way to do it. However, I wish at this point I'd done the icing on the windows as it was so difficult to pipe flat onto the walls and make it stick... hence the excess of drop down icing to hide my mistakes. We can't all be perfect. 

Next up I added all the icing and decorations to make the house look super cute and festive and like something out of a frigging Hanz Christian Anderson novel. Beautiful. 

Finally just to make it super duper cute I sprinkled icing sugar over the top to make it look like snow. I love it. 

I couldn't be happier with my first attempt at a Gingerbread House and I simply cannot wait to take it into work and have everyone omomnomnonm on it. 

Yum. 

Disclaimer: this post is not sponsored. endorsed or affiliated.